Tag Archives: Challenge

Day Ten of the fast has arrived and I am at my computer before 5:00 a.m. dressed and ready to run, eager for the day to begin… and end. Somewhere around 9:00 p.m. this evening I will break my fast. I’m torn between being extremely relieved and a little disappointed. Work, running, and the banana/juice fast muted some of the expected effects of the fast that I enjoyed the last time.

A thin crescent moon was hanging above the eastern horizon like a white hammock against a dark blue sky. Was it waiting to provide a permanent resting place for me should this final test of my body go awry? If so, I am happy to report that it went unused. Cold, gusting breezes kept this from being as enjoyable and exhilarating as my last two “fast” runs, but it didn’t keep it from being faster. It was dark, I couldn’t see my watch, it was my last run of the ten-day fast, and I was accompanying Sid, my son-in-law, during his pre-work run. All this contributed to the fastest pace of this ten-day test of my body’s capacity to endure. Not that I couldn’t have gone a little faster, but I do still have fourteen hours of the fast yet to complete. This pace isn’t normally a challenge, but I worked hard for it this morning and I definitely felt close to my limits.

I’ll be doing another post this evening to report on this last day and my overall impressions. For now, I am about to spend a couple of hours babysitting my two-and-a-half week old grandson. So I guarantee Day Ten is getting off to a joyful start.